ALL SMILES: Chairman and Managing Director of Sundram Fasteners Ltd Suresh Krishna (centre) with Kinjirou Nakano, executive vice-president, JIPM-Solutions Co Ltd (left) and Surinder Kapur, Chairman, TPM club India, at the 6th TPM national conference in Chennai on Tuesday. — Photo: Shaju John

CHENNAI: The concept of total productive maintenance (TPM) is neither a strategy nor a goal, but a tool that can lift manufacturing enterprises out of mediocrity, Suresh Krishna, chairman and managing director of Sundram Fasteners Limited, has said.

Inaugurating the 6th TPM national conference organised here on Tuesday by the Confederation of Indian Industry, he said it was a tool that becomes better with use. "One has to learn to use this tool with all its potential," he said, pointing out that the challenge for the companies lay in sustaining the "emotional fervour" visible during the launch of the programme.

Towards ensuring the same involvement, dedication and emotional commitment, as at the beginning, the top management must constantly communicate with the workforce, as one of the key aspects of TPM was mindset change.

The mindset of people makes an excellent company and this could be achieved by consistent and proper inculcation of the TPM values.

Underlining the need to communicate to the shop floor employees the vision and goals of the company at every available opportunity, Mr. Krishna said the manufacturing companies must think big and TPM would help them leverage the cost arbitrage advantage available to them. Executive vice-president of JIPM-Solutions Co. Limited, Kinjirou Nakano, said India had the second largest number of companies that had adopted TPM, after Japan.

Underlining the need to groom people for sustaining and maintaining TPM excellence, he said the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance could depute experts to visit Indian companies implementing TPM programmes and help them identify the gaps.

According to Surinder Kapur, chairman of TPM Club India and chairman and managing director of Sono Koyo Steering Systems Limited, 30 Indian companies received the award for excellence in TPM in 2005 and over 50 kick-started TPM practices this year.

CII director-general N. Srinivasan said in the globalised era Indian companies must focus on the seven Cs of change, complexity of the change, challenges, competition, competitiveness, customers and creativity.

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